...perhaps caught in the act of being lifted up by the construction crane, now considered part of the architectural ensemble and a standard feature of Archigram projects. There the crane would be-sometimes the only permanent presence-lifting up and moving building components so as to alter the plan configuration, or replacing parts that had worn out with 'better' product. It is probably of interest that whereas Archigram tried to make what is essentially an inert object, a building, into something fluid the formal evolution of contemporary building such as Guggenheim at Bilbao is the result of a fluid process arrested to create an inert object. The measure of the building came to be viewed by us not so much in terms of whether it was deemed beautiful or ugly, monumental or intimate, or whether it did or didn't fit in with its neighbors but in terms of the service it preformed. Did the building satisfy the client's needs? did the client even know what his needs would be in the new world that seemed about to explode?
‘Spider’ Webb, New York, June 1999
